Today was really Helen's day. She wanted to go to The Mall, a designer outlet mall which has many big names including Gucci. We avoid the expensive shuttle buses and use public transport. We walk straight past the bus station on the way to where we thought it was, by the railway station. In the half hour we lost looking around, our bus had left. The next was at 11am. So we headed back to "retail central" nearby, a small area only a block each way consisting of all of LV, Gucci, Pucci, Bulgari, Amani, Prada, etc. Most opened about 10am, some later, so we checked a few out and especially got the "you're not good enough for us" glares in Prada, and Helen found the bag she wanted in Gucci.
We eventually made our way back to the bus, via our hotel for a quick pitstop. We got the front seats, which was a bonus. And off we went. The ride took was an hour, and took in a drive through Firenze, and onto some motorways, through two toll bridges, but especially went via some hilly Tuscan areas on windy roads, full of idyllic old houses, lots of olive trees and other orchards. Very beautiful countryside.
We arrive at the mall, and have a whole 5 hours until the bus returns! Plenty of time for Helen to shop until she dropped. The haul we came away with was modest; a wallet for me, a hat for Helen and a pair of shoes. Three small bags. We ate lunch in the only eatery there. The food was nice but expensive. We had pizza and drink. We ended up having a bit of a wait for the bus, but waited indoors as it was 35 degrees outside. The bus ride was back through the same route. I noticed that most major intersections, no matter there they went, included signs pointing to "ROMA". It seems that indeed, every road does lead to Rome. We returned to the hotel to cool off, and plan our next move.We returned to the Gucci store nearby, and Helen homed in on the bag she wanted. But wait! There is a new colour in the same design, which the rest of the world doesn't have yet. And it was nice. We purchased, not straightforward because my credit card was rejected twice. Rather embarrassing. What's the point of having a Titanium card to have it rejected in the moment of need? Helen used hers successfully. We later had an email from our bank, and phoned them to clear up the problem, apparently "The Westpac fraud monitoring system has picked up some 'out of character' spend on your card.". They had blocked my card. It was just Helen spending a large amount of money on a handbag in a foreign country. Which apparently is not so 'out of character' on her card :-) Anyway that was enough excitement for one day.
The day was wearing on, so we found a local eatery which served a variety of very Italian food including sliced meats, tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, etc and lots of fresh fruit for dessert. Very nice indeed.After that we headed off to our hotel, where we could cool down with air conditioning and get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow, we ride the around town tour bus!
Oh and here's a funny sight. Only in Italy!
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